USPS Mail Paranoia

[MartinL]

I went to mailbox today, the kind on a wooden post by the road, and found the door 100% jammed shut, with nothing inside. To most people, this wouldn't raise any red :usaflag:s, but it did with me. My rusty mailbox door has to be literally forced THAT closed up, and I personally never ever have done that myself. I actually like to leave it loose to let me know quickly if the mail has been delivered. This makes me even more worried that any home mail, including CC offers and valid home delivered bills might be being lifted by cheap criminals.

Now I am not talking about shredding or making sent mail ONLY in postal boxes or the PO. It's the sent mail. Face it, this country does have it's bad elements even more than yesterday. What's a scary warning like Messing with a USPS mailbox is a federal offense, to people on the lamb, or even non citizens? I don't know much more that I can do here myself with my mailbox, but I'm going to be thinking more now after finding this empty mailbox, with the obvious, I wasn't official but I decided to look to see what you had individual. What other sense could I make out of it besides tampering, since I absolutely know I didn't close the door that way, and I didn't send any mail with the red :usaflag: raised so the mail man didn't open and close it, and it was totally empty so I didn't get mail?

Do you rural people pay this much attention to your security, to cause noticing these kinds of seemingly unimportant anomolies/oddities? Just seemed really suspicious to me. BTW I live single, so a family member couldn't have been the culprit. martin

[Nitro 54]

Probably just some kids walking by and playing with all the box's as they went by.. If your worried about it, you can get one of the new lockable boxes. once its shut you need a key to open it.

[MartinL]

How will the mailman get in without a key? martin

[Toadman]

I keep a post office box myself

[Nitro 54]

How will the mailman get in without a key? martin

Most models have a KEY that the mail man uses and others lock when shut, which probably wouldn't address your problem if someone other than the postal guy pushed it shut.. I see some in my rural area's and they don't look cheap.

[Jeff (or)]

Does sound a little strange, if you have any neighbors nearby, talk to them and ask if they have had any concerns with their mailboxs lately.

[psychposse]

Sad that we have to be so cautious.

Remember several years back - the mailbox bombs? They caught the guy, a college kid from Pine Island, Minnesota (15 miles from me at the time) who was attending college in Menominee, WI. He was rigging an explosive inside the mailbox so when the door was opened, boom.

I can understand your red-:usaflag:s and concerns.

[BlackZ51Vett]

Your letter carrier could have jammed it closed. Maybe he got a little too close and hit it with his mirror, bent it, decided to straighten it himself, couldnt do a good job and jammed it closed. He should of stopped, called an accident in to his supervisor and went from there. But being rural, no one around, who's to know, etc. I'm a letter carrier and have some experience with this sort of thing........... 8/

[exsquid]

When we have had trouble with mail box theft in our area the doors generally don't get shut at all...the perps grab the mail and run..... I would tend to agree with Z51Vette that it was just the rural mail carrier. The rural carrier probably thought he had some mail and once realizing he stopped for nothing slammed her closed a bit harder than intended....

[MartinL]

I believe I solved the mystery. The road is being replaced and there is heavy equipment, so I figure that the foreman had somebody in the crew come on Sunday to secure all the mailbox lids so the equipment operators wouldn't accidentally hit one. It wasn't tight on Saturday night after the mail had run, so it couldn't have merely been the mailman, and kids out here won't leave the XBox and walk when it's not ideal weather. martin

[russellt]

make a no fly zone around your mailbox. get a bulldawg and leash him too the mail box post